Genesis Part 010
We can see the lasting impact that Adam and Eve’s choices in the Garden of Eden have on mankind even to this day.
Adam and Eve experienced consequences from their choices and actions of disobeying God in the Garden of Eden. Today we’ll explore those consequences and their lasting impact on mankind to this day.
In Genesis 3:16 God said to Eve that her sorrow would greatly increase in physical conception and pregnancy. Sorrow meaning pain, labor or hardship, and in that sorrow she would “bring forth children.” It’s worth noting that through sin and man’s choices, God’s desire to “bring forth children” into His Family has greatly increased in difficulty and hardship. There are a lot of spiritual parallels worth considering between the difficulty of women conceiving, miscarriages and pregnancy complications to that of what God has gone through.
Additionally, God says to the woman that, “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” The word desire means “a stretching out after” or “a longing.” This is different than the words used in verse 6 that we discussed in a previous lesson regarding “lustful desire.” God says she will “stretch out for” or “long for” her husband, but that he will “rule,” meaning to have dominion.
As we consider the deep meaning of this, these two words are paired together again in the next chapter. This time God says this to Cain in Genesis 4:7,
“If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire [stretching out for] is for you, but you should rule over it."
Here Cain is told that sin wants to control and lead him, but he must lead it. Back in Genesis, is God telling Eve that she would have a desire to control and lead her husband, but that he would rule over her instead? What we do know, is this was not God’s original design for a woman’s life but through her sin, her life was now much more difficult and would never be blessed in the way God wanted for her. We may see more clarification through God’s next words to Adam.
In Genesis 3:17-19, God says to Adam,
“Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
Similar to Eve, God tells Adam that because of his sin life is now going to be much harder than what it would have been. God says this was because Adam “heeded the voice” of his wife. This word means “to listen to and to obey.” This is the meaning of the Hebrew word “Shama H8085” used famously in Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!” This word means to take in the sound, understand it and obey it. God tells Adam, that because he “heeded the voice” of his wife and disobeyed God, that his daily labor in life would be much more difficult. No longer would the ground be easy to work but by God’s curse, it would now be difficult. He would toil his whole life until he died and turned back into dust in the ground.
Next, in verse 21 it tells us that God makes a covering from animal hide and clothes them. From the Adam Clarke commentary,
“It is very likely that the skins out of which their clothing was made were taken off animals whose blood had been poured out as a sin-offering to God; for as we find Cain and Abel offering sacrifices to God, we may fairly presume that God had given them instructions on this head; nor is it likely that the notion of a sacrifice could have ever occurred to the mind of man without an express revelation from God.”
It is consistent with God’s plan that this first sin of mankind would require a “blood sacrifice” to bring them back into a relationship with God and that God created a way, a path, “to cover them.” We understand that Jesus Christ would ultimately fulfill this by giving His life as an atonement for sin.
At this point, Adam and Eve are banished from the environment God had designed for them and for their good and blocks access to the Tree of Life by a Cherubim (Cherub) angelic being.
Tomorrow we will take a deep dive into Genesis 4.
UYA Team | uya@ucg.org
United Young Adults (UYA) primarily serves the 18–32-year age group for the United Church of God. There are three main areas of contribution to the lives of the young adults: Promoting Spiritual Growth, Developing Meaningful Relationships and Making the Most of Your Talents. The Know Your Sword series is a daily expository message introducing God’s Word from a trusted perspective.
